A few days after the meteor shower, the mysterious shards have been gathered up by the guards, rebels, and another mysterious faction. However, what to do with them next remains a mystery, as all known texts on their purpose are hopelessly vague. If such a text exists, we don't know where to find it.

Six years ago, an unimaginable horror known as Tirek came to Equestria. His power was nigh impossible, requiring the Elements, the Lovers and the Alicorns all to pour their very souls into holding him. In their absence, Prince Blueblood took the crown. But, Blueblood's reign is simply a mask for the Guard's dictatorship, while rebels cling to the idea of a free republic and strange cults tout the value of freedom from any governance. With all this, why would anypony spare a thought for the comet that filled the night sky for weeks before falling?

Weather: CloudySeason: SpringWho's in power right now? TraditionalistsMeteor Collected: 0%

Late one night, an unprecedented event had occurred – the north side of the Cloudesseum had been completely and utterly demolished by what eyewitness accounts could only confirm as “the hoof of Celestia herself”, crashing down to the earth below. In light of recent events – as this object seems to have hit in several places according to stories coming around from around Equestria – a search party is currently being organized to find this object, which appeared to be on a direct course for Neighagra Falls. As the Cloudesseum is a treasure of the city, many weather ponies have been drafted from their previous jobs to work on the task of fixing the grand stadium, leaving many places in the weather factory in short supply of helping hooves.

The beauty of being a school teacher, particularly at an academy as freewilling and quasi-legal as the Scholomance, was that she did not even need spells to keep a constant watch on everything around her. She needed only to maintain a certain kind of relationship with her students.

So although she had been asleep when impact occurred, Clever Clover was not at rest for very long at all.

Indeed, she was up within minutes, and with one of her most sensitive unicorn students giving her a fairly accurate direction, the zebra set off for the closest of the five meteor fragments.

She knew not what it was, but if her foals were to be believed, it could be an alicorn, or at least the means to find them. It rang true with the same pure, deific power that had made the alicorns so famous.

The Negihagara falls were nearer than Baltimare, less than a full twenty four hours at a hard gallop, but they were also beyond the Rambling Rock mountains. There could be no hard gallop through their treacherous, loose soiled terrain.

So it was not until nearly three days later that she was able to reach the site, certain and roiling with terror that somepony else had reached it first.

She made quite the intimidating site, a wild maned zebra who had taken no time for packing or supply, or for that matter hygiene. She was covered in the salty musk of dried sweat, bits of leaves and twigs tangling her once immaculate mane. But there was not time, there was no time

She could see no smoke, not after this long, but there must be... something.

Indeed there was something. Three somethings, in fact, two pegasi standing next to a dark rock no larger than one of the desks the zebra's students would sit at. They both had their backs turned, and if she listened closely she would be able to pick out parts of their conversation.

"...Nothing like it, and this is what tore up the Cloudesseum? Seemed a lot bigger then."

"Idiot, most of it probably got smashed to bits when it hit the falls. We're just lucky it didn't go in the water, or we'd never get it back out. Now, help me get this thing outta here." The two heaved the rock onto their backs, before turning around and spotting Clover for the first time.

"Oh, hello. ...You don't look so good, need us to help you find a town or something?"

Two pegasi in garish springtime shades. Such ponies were fine individually, but standing close together, they often made clover grateful for her own monotonous and more importantly, complimentary coloring.

She considered, for a moment, the value of dipping back into the woods and tracking them. But for all she knew, the pair might have a group waiting for them somewhere.

Right here, right now, she had the best chance of swindling them, and if that failed, of beating them into the muddy ground and running.

However, no plan of clever words unravelled itself in her mind. Days of climbing and trekking and barely sleeping hadn't been kind to her famous mind.

So for the moment, she only nodded, moving slowly towards them. A misstep over a root sent her careening to the ground, reactions too slow to catch herself, and give her the inspiration she needed.

"I have been lost for so many long, cool nights,Thinking death would take me until I saw a burning light,I followed with nothing more than hope and dreams,And it has led me here to you, it seems."

She had climbed back to her hooves, making a carefully modulated show of weakness. She wobbled towards the pair of pegasi, eyes wide and haunted.

"Is that the my saving grace,The will o wisp that led me to this place?"

The pegasus moved to brace her in the hopes that she wouldn't fall again, even as the other started moving back toward Cloudsdale.

"We should really get this back to the city for examination..."

"Nah, c'mon. We can do that after we get her to a hotel somewhere, and maybe a hospital. What's your name, anyway?" He used his wing to brace her as he began to take her back to a nearby village, even as his wary compatriot followed after them.

She was quick to lean her weight heavily against the pegasus's side. She was not a hollow boned flier like him, after all, and her careful gesture let her ensure both that her own energy reserves were kept as best as they could be, and that he would be off balance when the moment came.

"I am Sumu Kwenye Damu,And it is a great pleasure to meet you."

That wasn't technically a lie, as that had been Clover's name once, a very long time ago, when Zebrica had still been her home. It rolled off her tongue easily now, a simple unlie that would add a layer of disguise to her identity. One could never be too careful with these things. If she failed, then having the attack attached to some unknown zebra would be better than having it associated with her directly.

"I think a hotel will quite suffice,At this point the thought of a bed is unimaginably nice."

The first pegasus smiled warmly and let her lean against him; what he lacked in bone density, he made up for in muscle, and he could bear her weight without much effort. It was slightly uncomfortable, though, and he would probably be knocked over if she shifted her weight without telling him.

"C'mon, I think there's a town not too far from here. While we walk, you can tell us what you were doing out here in the first place, yeah?"